April 29, 2014, Charlottetown – Warren Grove native Scott Beamish has announced that he is retiring from competition in short-track speed skating. The announcement comes after a season that Beamish was not able to complete. Beamish sustained season ending injuries in a car accident on P.E.I. over the Christmas holidays, during a short break from his training and university studies in Calgary.
A few weeks before the accident, Beamish had competed in a national team selection competition in Montreal, finishing high enough to put him in contention for a national development team spot with the second of two selection meets still in front of him.
After missing several weeks of school during his recovery, Beamish was able to return to Calgary to catch up and complete his semester, but was not able to put the blades back on. In a release from Speed Skate PEI, Beamish said the injuries were a major factor in his decision, but not the only one. “One of the things that happened in that accident was that some vertebrae in my neck were cracked. Given the crashes that can happen in short-track, my doctors were a bit concerned about the risk of additional trauma to those vertebrae and what the consequences of that could be. So, that was definitely a factor for me. For all amateur athletes though, we’re always weighing the time and money we put into our sport pursuits, even when it is a lot of fun, versus the years our lives are essentially put on hold from school, career and family. Ultimately, while I still love skating, it seemed like the right time to put more energy back into some other parts of my life. My time away from training after the accident helped me reach that conclusion,” said Beamish.
The Island skater said he is looking forward to his next phases of involvement in the sport, particularly through coaching. “I have so many great memories of skating with the P.E.I. club at the (Eastlink) Centre in Charlottetown and I want to help more kids get a chance to enjoy speed skating the way I did for so many years.”
Speed Skate PEI President Rob Binns congratulated Beamish on his stellar career and thanked him for his contributions to the sport on P.E.I. “Scott has been such an ambassador for our organization and P.E.I. He always represented us with great pride and class at the national level and had great success. The sport is so deep in Canada, but Scott showed he could skate with anyone, going to the start line with Olympic medalists and top guys from all over the world in the last couple of seasons. He should be extremely proud of his career, just as we are. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours on and off the ice,” said Binns.
Beamish leaves an impressive record behind, having won Speed Skate PEI’s President’s Award twice and top skater award three times during his years skating in Charlottetown. He also owns numerous provincial records as the fastest short-track skater ever from P.E.I. Beamish also led P.E.I.’s Canada Games short track team in Halifax in 2011.
Information on Speed Skate P.E.I. and its programs can be found on the club’s website at www.speedskatepei.ca.
